Men’s Basketball Scoreboard (Nov. 10)
Green Bay 72, Chicago State 67
Youngstown State 80, George Washington 73
The wins were not always pretty, but Green Bay and Youngstown State won its respective season-openers as Horizon League men’s basketball teams improved to 8-0 on the year season.
Green Bay 72, Chicago State 67
Struggling from the field throughout the game, Green Bay used a 41-for-48 effort at the free-throw line to overcome visiting Chicago State, 72-67, at the Resch Center.
Green Bay (1-0) was just 15-for-48 from the floor, but Keifer Sykes carried the Phoenix with a career-high 31 points, including a 17-for-19 day at the free-throw line.
Despite the 31-percent shooting, the Phoenix were able to get past a pesky Chicago State squad by going to the free-throw line on over 41 percent of their possessions.
A Chicago native, Sykes scored 22 points after halftime while setting a program record with the 17 free throws. As a team, the Phoenix also broke a 31-year old program record for free throws made, hitting 41.
The Phoenix needed every one of the free throws and all of Sykes' heroics to overcome 30 turnovers and escape a feisty Chicago State team that jumped out to a 13-1 lead at the first media timeout.
Green Bay scored 18 of the next 23 points and took its first lead on a pair of free throws by Brennan Cougill with 9:05 left in the first half. The Phoenix missed the first free throw of the night before making its next 16 attempts. Green Bay's shooting percentage was just 26.1 percent (6-for-23) at halftime, but 17-of-19 from the line helped the team to trail just 33-30.
Sykes had two thunderous dunks in the game, the first with 5:43 left in the first half and the second early in half two when he opened by scoring 13 of the team's first 19 points to turn the deficit into a 49-41 lead with 12:48 to play.
Chicago State refused to go away, however, and the teams traded leads over the next seven minutes. The Cougars led 65-61 with 5:09 to play. The Phoenix, who won 12 of its 14 home games a season ago, responded with the next eight points and never trailed the rest of the way.
Sykes fittingly had five points during the run to surpass his previous career high. He finished 7-of-14 from the field and added the 17 free throws to become the first Phoenix player under Wardle to score 30 or more points in a game. Sykes also added seven rebounds and three steals in 36 minutes. The last Green Bay player to score 30 or more was Troy Cotton, who had 36 at Akron on March 17, 2010.
The Phoenix won despite a 4-for-26 combined shooting day from the other four starters - Cougill, Alec Brown, Kam Cerroni and Jordan Fouse. Ten rebounds from Fouse and seven by Brown helped Green Bay to a 45-31 edge on the glass. Cougill was the only other player in double figures while Cerroni made all six of his free throws en route to eight points.
Green Bay finished the game shooting 31.3 percent (15-48), including 1-for-17 from long range. The Phoenix held CSU to 36.5 percent from the floor (23-63) and forced 27 turnovers.
Youngstown State 80, George Washingston 73
A year ago, the depth may have not been there for Youngstown State when it needed. With Kendrick Perry ailing, Bobby Hain and DJ Cole stepped up to deliver the bench points needed to lift the Penguins to an 80-73 win in its season opener at George Washingston.
Youngstown State (1-0) used 19 points from Blake Allen, along with 19 from Bobby Hain in his collegiate debut to get past the Colonials. Hain added 11 rebounds for the double-double as the Penguins outrebounded George Washington, 43-38, giving YSU a 9.9 percent edge in offensive rebounding percentage.
The Penguins owned an 11-point advantage at the half, never trailing in the second half. George Washington closed within a point on two occasions and tied the game with under a minute to play.
The Colonials tied the game at 71-71 with 58 seconds left on a dunk by Isiah Armwood, but the Penguins regained a 74-71 edge after an old-fashioned three-point play by Damian Eargle with 40 seconds left.
A steal and two free throws by Allen pushed the Guins lead back to five 76-71 with 25 seconds left.
Free throws by Perry, Hain and Allen in the final 21 seconds sealed the victory.
The Penguins struggled from the field making just one of their first nine shots but never trailed by more than five points. They finished the half converting 13 of their next 24 field-goal attempts.
Down 11-6, YSU took its first lead on a three-pointer from Kamren Belin just under 10 minutes into the first half. Belin added nine rebounds for the Penguins.
A three-point play by Armwood gave the Colonials another five-point lead with 6:03 to go before the Penguins closed out the half on a 20-4 run.
Allen made the first of his four 3-pointers and converted two free-throws to tie the game at 28-28. Hain then scored the next seven points on a layup, two free throws and a 3-pointer to put YSU ahead 35-28. The Penguins extended their lead to 12, 41-29, after a put-back by Hain, a layup by Cole and another jumper by Hain.
Eargle and DJ Cole each finished with 11 points, while Shawn Amiker added 10 as YSU won its third straight season-opener. Cole and Amiker recorded career scoring highs against the Colonials.
Allen hit four three-pointers in the game, including three in the second half to help the Penguins hold off the Colonials.
